1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of online gaming as well as interactive TV voting or gaming.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet server based merchant sites such as Amazon.com have flourished since the explosion of the Internet. These very high traffic sites rely on a pervasive three-tier model: web page server farm, clustered database server and web browser user interaction. The transactional operations such as adding an item to the shopping cart and proceeding with credit card payment may take in the order of seconds to complete. During heavy traffic, the response time deteriorates rapidly. Transactional data travels via complex paths with multiple speed-optimization caches, via executing machines selected by cookie driven session state management, via imposing clusters and via hugely complex databases. Consequently, zero-loss of data integrity is difficult to guaranty under all possible failure modes. Occasional loss of data integrity is not critical for an online merchant and a manual procedure may be applied to resolve customers' complains. In addition, malicious intrusion, virus contamination and distributed denial of service are a permanent threat.
Internet technologies have matured somewhat and are now relatively simple to implement; solutions can be rapidly developed. Some startup companies are now attempting to apply experience acquired in developing merchant Internet sites to gaming sites including, for example, offshore Internet gaming sites. Evidently, these gaming operations are not regulated and it is not known how these systems perform in comparison with conventional gaming systems such as online state lotteries and online casino slots. Lately, some companies have proposed offshore Internet gaming systems for use in casino and national video lotteries. Disaster tolerance with no interruption of service and zero-loss of data integrity is not even considered.
Although Internet server technology is tempting, it is clear that the Internet server technology is unproven and that due to its hidden complexity, it is immensely difficult to reassure game regulators as to the integrity and security of systems using such Internet server technology. Moreover, gaming laboratories that test and certify gaming systems for compliance with stringent data integrity principles would need to invest considerably in educating their engineers. The “keep-it-simple” principle is still much favored by regulators.
Currently, in order to produce random game outcome, the majority of gaming applications use either software methods or either plug-in hardware generators. Software-only random generators (also called pseudo random generators) are well known for their poor quality in such that knowledge may be acquired allowing to predict the numbers. On the other side, plug-in hardware generators have a simple interface (such as RS232, Parallel port, USB) that can be observed and spoofed. Encrypted plug-in hardware generators are significantly costly and have not made any inroad into the gaming machines such as used in the casinos. In addition, encrypted hardware generators are too slow to be used for server based random generators.